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Early Waking 17m - Any ideas??

3 replies

PorridgeBrain · 08/02/2009 08:07

DD is 17m and despite sleeping through from 8-12 weeks (which i realise now was just a fluke) since then she has given us various sleep issues to tackle over the last 12 months. She has never needed a huge amount of sleep at night. We have had to resort to keeping her up to 8pm and only giving her a 1hr dtn to avoid her waking in the night and to get her to wake about 6-6.15.

However the last few nights, her wake up time has been getting earlier and earlier and we are now down to 5.30 wakeups. 6am onwards I can handle but 5.30 is just too early both for us and her.

When she is up so early, she is ready for a sleep again by 9.30-10 but if she has two dtn's she is awake in the night. We usually manage to hold her out till 11.30 for lunch and then put her to sleep at 12 for an hour or she falls asleep at 11 but then is up at 12pm for the day till 8pm. Also, the earlier she wakes in the morning, the harder that is to do.

When she wakes in the morning she is normallly happy to chat in her cot so i try and leave her in her cot for as long as she is happy so that she gets as much rest as possible but she is still awake from this time (and so are we!). It also means that she is only having about 10.5 hours sleep in total incl dtns. I don't really think i should be cutting her dtn down any more but not sure why she is getting up so early. Her bedroom is approx 18 degrees and she is never desperate for food or drink when she gets up. Any ideas anyone??

OP posts:
BellaMummy · 08/02/2009 08:19

I had the exact same experience with my dd who is now 2.5 yrs. At around 18 months she started waking at 5am, sometimes slightly before, and we were finding it very tiring. Sounds as though you are taking a sensible approach with her daytime nap etc. and I think it is just little ones - they like to wake up early sometimes. It could be just a phase, but it could turn into a habit!

I'm not sure if this would work for you. We bought my daughter a 'bunny clock' from blooming marvellous - although I'm sure you can get them elsewhere on the internet. When we were looking there were two different ones on the market and we bought the one that has a disc with two pictures - one of a bunny sleeping and one of a bunny awake and skipping along. You turn it on when they go to bed and the sleeping bunny is illuminated (cue lots of chat about the bunny going to sleep and when the bunny wakes up it is time to get up) and you set the clock to what time you want them to get up. We gradually pushed ours back to 7:15 or so.

Our dd loves it and it has really worked. She actually now sleeps happily every night from 7.30pm to 7.30am. Obviously it depends on their understanding and whether or not they 'get it', but it only took my dd about 3 days and now she loves it. She often wakes up before but she plays in her bed/room and only calls out to us when the bunny wakes up.

Might be worth a shot?

Good luck!

Susie

PorridgeBrain · 08/02/2009 09:13

Hi Susie

Thanks for the advice. I have heard of these clocks before but didn't think it would work at this age. Did you use it when DD was 18months or older? I am willing to try anything to get some more sleep for everyone!

OP posts:
HeadFairy · 08/02/2009 09:17

My ds has been doing this lately. He went through a phase of waking up at 5.30 every morning, it stopped for a bit but it's started again. I'm hoping it's a phase that'll stop soon enough, I've worked a 60 hour week this week and I'm dead on my feet.

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